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by mpardi2013
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."Mahatma Ghandi
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When we are suddenly pressed to explain someone's recurrent troublesome behavior we often default to, She must have a predilection. Or, He is accident prone. This leaves the antecedents in a very murky, mysterious dimension. Of course, most of us find no satisfaction in those statements; they ring of Aristotle's "Harmartia", an occult character flaw which lies in wait for a passing opportunity to manifest, or an intractable characteristic which defies remedy.
Those of us in the social-behavioral sciences have seen this extrapolated to entire populations: Germanic peoples are warlike; the Swiss naturally make the best timepieces; or, the French are the best lovers. The decades following World War II saw the Germanic warlike claims replaced by the claim that Germans "over engineer" such things as automobiles or any artifacts they sit down to design. Having owned and worked on upper rank German cars I confess to having uttered such condemnations. I've also owned a Japanese scuba diving watch which outperformed a world known Swiss dive watch, at one tenth the price. As for French women, well I'm not talking.
In the past four plus years we have increasingly heard the term, Dog Whistle, and the admonition, Words Matter. Having taken, out of necessity, a very early interest in languages I accepted that not only do words matter, the cultural context in which they are said matters. Our culture is permeated with examples of words torn loose from their context, the very basis which gave them their original meaning. And here I declare meaning to be larger than mere definition. In teaching the linguistics portion of college Anthropology I liked to use an example from what Christians call the Bible. We are told that Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the dead. Powerful words. Even more powerful meaning. So what's the problem? The problem is that the portions of the Bible in which these words appear were written by individuals of the fact based Greek culture, not the Hebrew culture. It is apparent that the Greek writers, quite removed from the Hebrews in time and space, did not know that Hebrews, or "Jews", saw no distinction between the behaviors of religious faith and those of everyday life. A Jew did not just observe certain religious rules on the Sabbath day and go about his business the rest of the week. Thus, a Jew who stopped believing in the faith became an everyday "Untouchable". Any person who so much as spoke to an apostate – one who renounced his faith, became polluted and had to endure a lengthy and involved cleansing process. Thus, totally cut off from any form of transaction or interaction, the apostate was considered effectively "dead". Ever hear someone say, "That person is dead to me"? That's what the entire community said of the apostate. Of course, the narrow editing of what the average person gets to read since then has obscured the fact that many "healers" went about in those days "raising the dead", that is, bringing them back into the faith. So, unless you want to believe that Jesus' times were just the pilot for the popular television show The Walking Dead, you would be well advised to understand the cultural basis for the words, raised from the dead.
So what about these dog whistles? I've seen dog whistles put to use. I say seen because, not being a dog, I did not hear the whistle. And, not being a racist, White Nationalist, Fundamentalist, and/or neo-Fascist I almost always found myself saying, Oh, yeah, only after a news analyst points out the dog whistle in some Republican's speech. I've examined my hearing, and have gotten better at recognizing it without help.
I highly value dogs, more so than many of the people I've known. But, based on the last presidential election, it must be accepted that there are at least 74 million (people?) out there who hear the whistle. And that self evident fact should inform a deep sense of caution toward the easy explanations for such events as the recent coup d'etat we saw in Washington, D.C. Easy explanations set us up for the classic harmatria, the tragic flaw which tips the trajectory downward toward inevitable doom.
One easy explanation is found in the rush, especially by Republicans, to say everything bad that has happened in these past four years has been Trump's fault. As a loud mouthed buffoon and shameless grifter he makes that easy. But there are many such people in our society today. As I've so often said, Hitler did not walk out of a Munich beer hall and take over Germany all by himself, and the same is true of Donald J. Trump.
Another easy explanation surfaced just after the 2016 election: Trump's base is made up of angry White men who are under educated and in low wage dead-end jobs. In fact, while that is largely true, it is also true that there are many Trump followers who are well placed in significant careers and who have advanced degrees. Under educated is not the issue; poorly educated is the issue. I have repeatedly maintained that far too many Americans, even if multiply degreed, would not know Fascism if it hit them in the face – which it has.
Years ago several excellent books explained that people vote based on what they feel, not on what they know. So it's appropriate here to point out that predilections, incipient readiness to act in certain ways, are based in feelings, not in knowledge. The actions of the Hebrews toward apostates cited above were based in beliefs, which are based in feelings. But when something is known it is not a belief, it is a fact. The facts were that the apostates then classified as "dead" were as alive as ever and walking around. Yet, the faith based feelings (beliefs) were so strong as to cause even family members to mourn the "death" of a relative, and perhaps call in some exceptionally eloquent speaker to bring him "back to life".
We might take a lesson from the Hebrews. Instead of asking what body of knowledge causes people to succumb to the call of a tyrant-in-waiting we should be asking what in our social experience forms the feelings which lead to such submission. What predilections caused the pre-WWII German population to march down a path behind a demagogue to almost total annihilation, and what parallels can we draw to understand the presidential election of 2016?
Numerous examples inform us that we cannot simply legislate feelings. Outlawing discrimination only holds the feelings beneath the surface. How many times have we heard, I know it's wrong but I believe it anyway. And, I was raised this way.
We must seriously reexamine the K-12 curriculum to understand that how we teach what we teach is obviously not working in the interest of the entire society. For example, instead of concentrating our history, civics, and social studies classes on a deadly boring chronology of who, what, where, and when we must develop means of instilling what it would actually feel like to live under the socio-political systems under review. We must develop the Why and the How of social developments.
Yes, of course there will be outcries from factions of our society as they are exposed and analyzed. We have seen that every time a Republican administration has taken power and they attempt to dismantle the public educational system. And, in 22 years of teaching a variety of college classes there have been one or two instances in which someone claimed I was presenting my personal views as the official views of my discipline. I often tried to foresee that and stated during the first class of the semester, I am not here to presumptively change your beliefs; I am here to present you with information. What you know is my business; what you believe is your business.
Now, I'm not so sure. We have seen the general failure of Sex Education classes and Drug Education classes largely because they focused on mechanics, not meanings. Teaching the mechanics of sex without the meanings of sexuality, teaching the chemistry and dangers of drugs without exploring the reasons why someone would choose to alter their consciousness guarantees failure to reach the potential predilection parts of the mind. No one explained Why; no one explained Why Not in ways that shape the very personal basis of feelings.
I've had several courses in Educational Psychology, and I devoted eighteen months to on-site studies of cross-cultural educations systems. But I will not present myself as one who knows how to address the problems I've raised, beyond what I've already said.
This site is read in many countries around the world, and I am grateful for that. Hopefully there will be those readers who are willing to impart to us some understanding we have not been able to develop for ourselves.
"Quam minimum credula postera" (Trust as little as possible in tomorrow) Horace Odes. Book 1 (23BCE)
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Although many people are familiar with the phrase, Carpe diem, to the point of it being trite, few have read, in Latin, the full context from which it came. Yet, we in America are now facing the realization that seizing the day is, while momentarily satisfying, simply insufficient to address our uncertainties about tomorrow. In fact, tomorrow, once a term which could speak of a limitless future, has become truncated to the markers which had previously passed with little or no general notice. One State has yet to hold a run-off election which will determine whether we have a functioning federal government or another episode of obfuscatory impasse as one extremist Republican Senator refuses to bring for Senate consideration any and all propositions from a Centrist Democratic President. Another marker is the hitherto pro forma Congressional approval of the Presidential vote count already held and confirmed by the Electoral College. Already there have been Republican officials voicing intentions to object to the approval, delaying the Presidential transition yet further into "tomorrow", and even imposing Martial Law through the dispersal of armed federal troops throughout the Nation. And, of course, there is the ultimate marker: Inauguration Day in which the duly elected new President is sworn in and takes residence in the White House. The current nominal President has signaled often that he will not leave.
It may be said the delaying tactics are to further enable the extremist Republicans as they are frantically rushing to confirm more lifetime ultra-"conservative" federal judges, disable scientific institutions across the land, repeal every environmental protection, finalize the staggering economic imbalance in the country in their favor, disable or outlaw every possible social support for the less affluent, and sell off federal land to mining and other fossil fuel industries.
Currently our national attention is focused on the Covid-19 pandemic, as it should be. However, in the remaining 20 days or so of the current administration we face additional existential threats from outside and from within. The pandemic will continue and, as we deploy vaccines, will move from an acute condition to a chronic one. But just the opposite is true for the other conditions.
As time passes we easily forget exact numbers when remembering past elections. The recent exception to this, of course, has been the drumbeat from the Trump syndicate claiming false numbers from the 2016 election. But lies are not good grounds for preparing for highly probable realities. The recently past reality in the current case is that some 74 million people voted to continue the chaos, internal hatred and violence to and from practically every demographic in America, attacks on and erosion of the very foundations of American democracy, extreme exacerbation of economic disparities which favor a handful of Americans – notably including the chief of the syndicate and his family, and planet killing rollbacks of every environmental safeguard we have. Those 74 million were outvoted and defeated by a mere 7 million more. We would be well advised to remember that.
We should also realize that these 74 million are not going to "see the error of their ways", nor are they going to get up and leave. And we should realize that these 74 million are not loony individuals dressed in Army Surplus store sartorial splendor; they are among your neighbors and acquaintances.
The internet is aflame with conspiracy theories, vicious expressions of frustration and rage, appeals to join "patriotic" militias, and exhortations from "religious" leaders to overturn what was a fair and proper presidential election. Feeding and compounding this cacophony are behind the scenes actors such as the Sluzhba Vneshnei Razvedki (SVR), the Russian foreign intelligence service arising from the former KGB. In addition to disseminating inflammatory materials on the internet they have also penetrated the operating software employed by almost all American federal agencies, including infrastructure such as electronic banking, water systems, and power supplies. In short, an EXECUTE order to their implanted software can immediately result in the kinds of social, health, environmental, and psychological panic and disorder which is exactly what the 750 and growing in number militia groups need to justify a violent uprising. This is not some fantasy. This is a sober assessment of a near future outcome. The only question applies to the degree of probability.
A stable characteristic of the American government has been the peaceful, indeed cooperative hand-off of power to the next elected administration. Indeed, it can be helpful to imagine a track & field relay race: A president gets to carry the baton for four laps around the track. If re-elected he gets to go around for another four. But that is the end of his race. As he approaches the incoming runner he makes every effort to place the baton so the next runner can catch up to him and successfully take it forward. Instead, what we now have is a president who has no concept of Team, who cares only for his own glory no matter the cost to every stakeholder in the race, who refuses to yield the baton in the belief that possessing it protects him from the federal and state criminal indictments waiting for him at the finish line.
In refusing to acknowledge the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election this current administration delayed for weeks the critical daily intelligence briefings the incoming administration seriously needs to understand and address the crises facing the nation. The current president has surrounded himself with sycophants and convicted felons many of whom are suggesting bizarre and illegal tactics to overturn the election in hopes of currying a presidential pardon for their crimes.
Although it is unlikely the current president will be able to continue clutching the baton in his little fist, it is certain that a substantial portion of the population will continue to devise ways to overturn and hijack the race. There will no doubt be many different expressions of these ways and violence is to possibility that should not be ignored as unlikely or impossible.
Speaking of Tomorrowland, it is interesting to note that the Mad Max film series was set in 2021.
Destiny, n. A tyrant's excuse for crime and a fool's excuse for failure." Ambrose Bierce. The Devil's Dictionary.
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I can't speak for the Devil, but when I encounter the word random my first thought is: code for "I dunno". For me it falls into a class similar to "You know" and "They say". It calls upon an illogical determinant, something which just is and just happens and relies on unquestioning acceptance. I've read accounts of avid sunbathers saying their melanoma cancer was just a random event. Even the more literate among them sometimes say, Oh well, a random subatomic particle emitted in a faraway star system or even our own star just happened to hit a chromosome in such a way as to alter it toward development of cancer. Pardon me, but NO. Granted that we are limited in our abilities to predict these emissions, but we can predict the probable outcome of your stupid habit.
But our young children routinely show us the pre-acceptance state. When parents or teachers who believe in a God try to teach a child that God created everything the child's first question usually is, Who created God? The common answer is: Nobody created God. God always was. Of course, if one really wants to silence the child one might invoke Sui generis, self generating. In other words, the lesson in causality being taught, Cause = God; Effect = Everything, is suddenly negated by the existence of an entity which, in this case, is neither Cause nor Effect. It just is, and it just causes things. Soon enough the child learns that, at least around a parent or teacher, acceptance = survival. Even in the face of illogical gibberish. For now, at least.
There's a deeply embedded caveat in that acceptance: The strongly implied admonition to not look too closely into causes, to not "obsess" over the past. But while living in the past is destructive, ignoring the past is catastrophic.
Within a matter of days the people of the United States will be faced with a question, one which has arisen before: Do we punish the newly defrocked President and his henchmen, or do we simply go on, albeit while struggling to undo what we can of the enormous damage these past four years have brought us and the rest of the world? Some have compared this dilemma to that which faced the nation with the forced resignation of Richard Nixon. But that is a false equivalence. No President, or elected official for that matter, has done more to undermine the fundamental principles of Democracy, the rule of law, the mores of common decency, and the safety and future well being of life on this planet than has Donald J. Trump. The litany of his misdeeds and the examples of his depravity would go far beyond my ability to recount and the readers' interest in considering.
But dwelling solely on this intensely damaged individual would be missing the largest lesson apparently many have yet to learn. Donald Trump was not sui generis. He was not random. Nor is there any reason to think we were destined to have him. Just as Adolf Hitler did not walk out of a Munich beer hall and take over Germany all by himself, Donald Trump did not push out the aspirants to the White House all by himself. He was managed and massaged, especially his profoundly narcissistic ego, by the latest generation of a population which decades ago erupted into the "Red Scare" of the 1920's through 1960's (the growing mega-corporations which wanted to kill the Labor movement and any chance at decent working conditions were behind this); the American Fascist Party, soon to morph into the American Nazi Party (funded by major industry barons and luminaries including major newspaper editors across the country until WWII drove them underground); and, ironically enough, by the very victims of those industry barons – the under and ill educated White working class. And, there is good reason to suspect that the Republican Party intentionally threw the nomination debates in favor of Trump.
If a random event is something which is without ascertainable cause, and which we will not likely see again then the rise of Trump was certainly not a random event. The themes which Trump played throughout his campaign rallies and social media messaging were long and well developed tropes adjusted and adapted to current times: Fascism presented as Republicanism.
Did these themes work? In 2016 51,201,031 people voted for him. Have they continued to work? Hate crimes surged by 20% under Trump (FBI). White Nationalist hate groups increased by 55% under Trump (SPLC). "There is a clear correlation between Trump campaign events and prejudiced violence." (FBI. Brookings Institution.) No, Trump was not sui generis; he was the surfacing of the American Fascist ideology which began taking over the Republican Party in the late 1970's, giving us Ronald Reagan as its first elected figurehead Fuhrer.
Having lived through the chaos, lies, corruption, lawlessness, attacks on science, and naked attacks on the core values of American Democracy these past four years, have the American people awakened? In 2020 74,222,484 people voted for him. An increase of 23,021,453. Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda under Hitler, would be proud. The Big Lie really does work.
There can be no question that Donald J. Trump must be charged with a variety of civil and criminal offenses (why else would he talk about pardoning himself?). But even if successfully brought to the logical conclusion of a prison sentence, America would be catastrophically remiss if it did not address the broad based attitudes and beliefs which brought him into office in the first place. I'm not speaking here only of the obvious issues we have faced before, racism, misogyny, exploitation of workers, etc. Those must be addressed….again. No, I'm speaking of the frank nuts & bolts basics that should have been stressed in repeated and graduated civics classes: Democracy, Socialism, Democratic Socialism, Fascism, and Totalitarian governments of any stripe. Communism is a non-starter. Anyone who knows even the basics of communism knows it has never worked at higher than the Band level of society, 80 or so individuals tops. Governments can call themselves whatever they want; that doesn't make it so. But if Democratic Socialism is so bad, why aren't the citizens of the Scandinavian countries storming our seaports and airports? Could it be that they actually merit their yearly designations as the happiest, most interconnected and productive countries in the world? Oh, but we excoriated Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for exclaiming he was a Democratic Socialist. We did that without knowing what Democratic Socialism was.
As so many statesmen have said before, Democracy takes vigilance and work. It will not survive if we continue to teach it in primary school classes in ways that render an insomniac senseless. These last four years have seen the most relentless and dangerous attack on democracy this country has ever seen. We now have enough factual material to develop case studies to carry students from primary school through graduate school. Will we muster the courage to do it?
I suggest an immediate impaneling of Sociologists, Political Scientists, and Historians to meet and devise chapters to be universally included in primary, secondary, and higher education textbooks explaining the honest history of the Fascist movement in this country. This material should also address the growing militia and White Nationalist movements, making clear their heritage from the Italian Black Shirts and the German Brown Shirts. Teachers of Civics, American History, Social Studies, and Political Science should be required, as part of their CEU (Continuing Education Units) requirement, to achieve and maintain proficiency in the understanding and the conveyance of this material. Private and Charter schools, up to now a dodge from secular and/or integrated schools, will comply or face closure. Seem Draconian? You haven't seen Draconian if you haven't seen Fascism.
We must reject the already developing tendency to excuse this administration as a "random" event, an aberration. It most certainly was not. But at the same time we must resist the temptation to excuse ourselves with the claim that we were destined to it anyway. That's exactly the head down subservience that is the life blood of Fascism.
If you've gotten this far, I hope you have developed the interest to comment. As those dreaded words have often said, "We need to talk."
"Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once." Adapted from:Ray Cummings. The Time Professor. 1921
"Both in thought and feeling, even though time is real, to realize the un-importance of time is the gate of wisdom." Bertrand Russell. Mysticism and Logic.
All comments are welcome and will receive a response. All previous posts are open for comment.
Although Russell is correct in a circumscribed sense, the conceptualization of demarcated time is illusory. Time is simply a measure of change. No change, no time. As the television series Kung Fu pointed out, the instant you conceive of the present it becomes the past; it is Not. The future is not here; it, too, is NOT. But if past and future are not, and present instantly becomes past, where is time?
The second hand sweeps at a fixed speed and we pass the minutes. We have a clock. The radioisotope decays at a fixed rate and we have an atomic clock. Remove all possibility of measuring change, perhaps by sitting in a windowless room with no chronometers of any kind and then tell me how you "tell the time". This was demonstrated some years ago by volunteers deep in an Italian cave, with unpleasant psychological outcomes. It has been demonstrated accidentally by miners trapped underground for periods known to the rescuers but unknown to the miners. Invariably, they report grossly distorted impressions of the passage of time, always on the long side. Of course, this phenomenon is known to those who have sat through my classes.
But time travel is a constant fantasy, even desire for many. Some long to go back within their own lifetime and get a "do over". Others, more adventurous, want the long view, a visit to long before they were born. One of the early examples in common literature was Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. In either choice one faces the questions: Do I go back as the person I am now, knowing what I know now? Or do I simply go back as a person living in that era?
The answer to the second question is easy. If one went back as simply a person living in that era one would not know it. Everything would be normal, the person would have no concept of having "returned" from some future state. The person who "was" would be erased and the person who is would be, well, is. Perhaps wondering what it would be like to live in the future. Where's the gain? There is none.
But most people opt for the first choice: arriving in the distant past as the person they are now. And here's where an Anthropologist might be of help, first in trying to talk one out of it and second in trying to prepare a person for a reality likely quite different from what they expected.
Many Anthropologists have been time travelers, of a sort. Those of us who have done field work, living with people in "under developed countries" especially as they do from day to day face a dual but deceptive reality. While it is easy to assume that such "marginal" people represent a long past stage in the development of "modern" society it is critical to understand that these people are living in their own present reality. They may not have the developed histories (which are often manipulated and/or outright wrong) modern societies rest upon but they do have generational memory preserved in folklore and oral traditions. And, they often have ways of doing things that would stun the sensibilities of modern Time Tourists. In the United States Thanksgiving has just passed. How many Americans went out into their yards and slaughtered a turkey for the festive meal? How many even know what a living turkey looks and sounds like, and how it behaves? But you get the point.
Personnel in other careers also find themselves at times in "other worldly" settings. In the military I recall shortly after dawn on the Great Libyan Desert hearing and then seeing a camel caravan coming over a huge dune about 50 yards from me. Camels' padded feet are silent but they often have strings of bells hanging from their halters. As they plodded past I was transported into an uncertain time warp; it could have been centuries ago or just last week. I half expected to see a bearded prophet followed by disciples trailing along behind.
Being alone out there with my attack dog on leash I felt free to respectfully wave at who appeared to be the leaders. But as they waved in return I knew that under those colorful robes there possibly were the latest Soviet issued Makarov handguns and the large parcels on the pack camels could be carrying Soviet supplied firearms and ammunition destined for the modern guerrilla fighters repeatedly attacking our base drinking water pumping stations about fifteen miles away.
Many people seek vicarious time travel through historical fiction, and some through serious historical accounts. But with the notable exceptions of Ken Follett, Neal Stephenson, and few others historical fiction is sparse on the details of day to day life in past times. I would be quite careful in recommending it to personnel outward bound to some of the more traditional societies. The television series Little House on the Prairie did not much mention the little house behind the little house on the prairie, where attending to toilet function was unpleasant at best and life threatening during serious winters. And thinking of that imaginary prophet (there were hundreds at any given time) followed by his disciples, I wonder why the biblical literature, so descriptive of violence, doesn't mention: And, lo, a straggler fell back from the group, calling to the brethren, "You guys go on. I'll catch up. I gotta take a dump." And so it came to pass…………..
Serious literature can also raise questions. The Talmud, Torah, and especially the Mishnah precisely explain the moments of everyday Hebrew life. Reading through the proscriptions and ritual ablutions before, during, and after sexual intercourse one is left wondering how the next generation of Hebrews got there. But like notable denominations of modern Christianity, how people say they should live is not necessarily how they do live.
Which brings us more or less to the "present". It's hard to repeat the trite sayings such as The past is behind you when we are living with the consequences of four years of horrendous internal turmoil, greed, lies, disregard of foundational principles and even laws, and the blatant attempt by the reincarnated American Fascist Party to replace democracy with outright fascism. The past is alive when we wonder how it is that so many supporters of the current regime who had family members who were maimed or killed fighting fascists in World War II Europe are blinded by their single issue obsession, such as banning abortion and even contraception, to the point where they will destroy the foundations of democracy and imperil all life on the planet we all share. It's as if Time did not simply progress, but shifted into an alien dimension.
As soon as it won the last presidential election the Trump administration became known around the world as The dog that caught the car. An amusing metaphor at first, it soon turned out that this dog was intent on destroying the car, the passengers, the road, and the countryside around it all in the name of personal and corporate greed. Ongoing international studies have shown that during the 40 years between 1970 and 2010 over 65% of the world's wildlife has disappeared, including an accelerating number of species that have gone extinct. 40 years are less than an eye blink in the time humans have walked the Earth. But extinction is forever.
In those 40 years we see the Democratic Party was in power for only 14. And now, as another Republican orgasm ebbs, we see a frantic effort on its part to roll back and/or eliminate any and all remaining environmental safeguards crafted by the scientific community over the past decades. We see around 300 lifetime appointments of "conservative" federal judges just in this recent four year span following the successful Republican blockade of centrist or left leaning judges during the previous administration. We see what used to be a fairly balanced, lifetime appointment Supreme Court now turned into a lop-sided 6 to 3 "conservative" court mostly beholden to the American Fascist group recently posing as the Republican Party. Would you like your case to come before this court?
In other words, the Ship of State is firmly set on a course from which it will be very hard to turn before Democracy is irreparably damaged, the environment is pushed beyond the tipping point, and our current generation of young children is indoctrinated into the subservience that serves the Fascist Fatherland. Already an increasing number of young people are electing to forego having children lest they bring them into the world that is plainly awaiting them.
But herein is the deepest tragedy. The very people who, by their awareness and concern are the most qualified to alter the course of the ship are the ones choosing not to change and empower the crew. There has long been no doubt that the best thing Mankind can do for the future of this planet is to dramatically reduce its numbers. But the irony is that this call to action is being heeded by the very people best qualified to prevent the environmental, economic, and social disasters deeply sewn by those who beguiled "the base" into supporting their short term rapacious greed. (I find it amusing that people who do not speak Arabic miss the fact that "the base", as Trump supporters are so widely characterized, translates into al qaeda – a vicious, transnational terrorist organization centered around their interpretation of one of the three great religions of the West.) Oh, well. Another time.
The Doomsday Clock is ticking toward midnight. Do we have the time to get up and act, or shall we just sit back and listen for the last tick? As the next administration steps into office it will be important to remember that undoing the horrendous damage will not come overnight. And, as we saw after the United States and the Fascist Axis Powers formally entered into World War II against each other, Fascists don't change their minds just because they changed their stripes. They melt back into our communities, our schools, churches and courtrooms. Waiting for another time.
"So irresistible is the transformative power of enlightenment that your life seems to be shifted into a new dimension, opened to new and unexpected possibilities." Eugene Herrigel The Method of Zen.
"The action of the creative individual may be described as a twofold motion of withdrawal and return: withdrawal for the purpose of his personal enlightenment, return for the task of enlightening his fellow men." Arnold Toynbee A Study of History.
All comments are appreciated and will receive a response. Previous posts are open for comment.
Those of us who are parents remember that period when our child was developing the concept of causality. The instant we explained something in what we were sure were age appropriate terms we heard, "Why?" Not wanting to stifle development, we attempted to clarify and enhance the information. And then, "Why?" We entered the ring, convinced that logic and reason would prevail. And got more Why. But some remember a different outcome: "Because I said so. That's why."
Though we may not have understood it at the time, this was a foray into the area of potential disconnect between knowing and feeling, the intangible difference between knowing something is so and feeling something is so. That disconnect is not inherently there at birth or through early development. It is developed over time through an enculturation process which greatly values knowledge over feelings. Facts are elevated to the highest position of authority and respect while feelings, senses, are relegated to lower positions as untrustworthy and inferior. Feelings which dare to ascend to the level of fact become beliefs, which you may attempt to counter at your peril. Yet, even Bertrand Russell, the preeminent philosopher of his Age, advised us that, ultimately, everything we think we know rests upon a belief that we are capable of knowing anything at all. This was the famous conundrum of Descartes, about which he threw up his hands and said, Cogito, ergo sum.
But why perpetuate a false dichotomy? Did Socrates rule out the senses and the subjective when he said, Know thyself? Especially in those parts of the world under the influence of Materialist – Reductionist thinking we find at least half the equation missing in a reverse of the common mistake that psychosomatic means "It's all in your head." If it were all in your head there would be no soma in that word. The mistake is the presumption that the term means only that a psychic, or mental state caused a particular somatic, or bodily state. The reverse is commonly true. And in the same way we cannot allow ourselves to be just the body without the mind, the soma without the psyche.
Those of us with teaching experience, particularly in higher education, know there are students who learn the material, they know it and mentally file it only until they can vomit it onto a test paper, being careful to not splash outside the box, and it's gone. They never internalized it, never felt it become part of how they experience the world, much less themselves. They did not have an epiphany. But for those working in the fields of Behavioral Change, internalization is the Holy Grail.
I'm currently working my way through a dense text exploring the latest in archaeobotany and archaeochemistry, in this case the studies of old traces of earlier Man's activities related to plants and chemicals. True, the going would be a bit tough for the layman, dealing with sequential thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) and pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) applied to residues in drinking vessels and fermentation bowls dating back many thousands of years BCE. But the findings are absolutely startling. As far back as 10,000 BCE, and probably earlier Man (actually women, from all the evidence) developed and utilized effective means not only of fermentation, but of extracting precise measures of naturally occurring psychedelics which, if mixed incorrectly were almost instantly fatal. The ritualized ingestion of these mixtures enabled cognitive expansion into hitherto unseen and unknown dimensions with effects similar to those of N-N-dimethyltriptamine but of longer duration. More than just a light show, these episodes enabled (as they currently do) communication with deceased relatives, friends, and sources of wisdom. And these conveyed verifiable information. Apparently originating in the Levant, these ritual occurrences spread throughout Europe and North Africa though famously associated with Eleusis in Greece. Hence, the Eleusinian Mysteries which, under persecution from the new Christian Rome, evolved surreptitiously into the Christian Eucharist. Later, Church "Fathers" purged women out of all authoritative roles and banned the use of anything but unadulterated wine and simple bread. What had been an intensely subjective experience was flattened into a purely material, objective experience – congregational communion in which nothing happened beyond the swallowing of the approved substances.
Does learning this add to my knowledge base? Yes. Does it change my feelings about the prehistory of self development? Not greatly, but only because I've been aware of the probable role of such fungi as Amanita muscaria for decades. But a person encountering this information for the first time must certainly be deeply affected. For me, the information developing in this text simply adds to the early pharmacopoeia we have been rediscovering recently.
In examining the residue evidence for the development of psychedelic cocktails as the crux of such enlightening rituals as the Eleusinian Mysteries and the early proto-Christian Eucharist a number of researchers have opened what Huxley famously spoke of as The Doors of Perception, giving rise to an in-spiration of new knowledge and associated feelings. But let's look at another opportunity to alter perception. All of us are at least familiar with, and have probably read Homer's Odyssey. If part of our schoolwork it was probably presented as fictional, epic literature perhaps based in a very few facts, elevating a particular person to heroic status.
But those of us who studied Greek and Latin Classics remember Plotinus (ca, CE 205-270) who, in examining Homeric Greek, decoded the Odyssey not as a simple fable but as a metaphor for our journey through life, and the afterlife. Though he may not have known it, his presentation remarkably tracks the underlying principles in the Egyptian Book of Coming Forth by Day (marketed as the Egyptian Book of the Dead) and the Bardo Thodol (marketed as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Who would buy a book titled "Bardo Thodol"? Okay, I would).
Reading this brought a sudden epiphany, a change of perspective from a Ho Hum, another fairy tale to a deeply felt understanding of the importance and personal value of the story. And the lesson in my coming forth by day is that, once again, we must beware the swing of the pendulum, the drive toward Materialist Reductionism. Too many interpret this as "science" when it is in fact scientism – the unrealized felt belief that only objectively measurable knowledge is valid.
Advocating cult-like belief in their inherent correctness, Republican administrations, built largely on the utter ignorance of many voters, especially the under-educated evangelicals, attack science unless it serves to increase their bank accounts or enhance their military weapons. Health and environmental sciences take a horrific beating. Now that we in the U.S. have an opportunity to reverse some of the damage done, we must be vigilant in clearly stating and adhering to the boundaries of what science can and cannot do. As currently practiced, science is empirical. It demands objective and verifiable proof. That's fine for most, but not all applications. It must not be used, as it has been so often, as a cudgel to subdue and invalidate the subjective. Science does not advance by obsessively poring over what it already knows; it advances by opening the portals into what it does not know. And that often demands a change in perception. Few people seem to realize that the term science is quite recent; we still award the Doctor of Philosophy degree precisely because it is through the open explorations characteristic of philosophy that our knowledge, and hopefully our understanding increases. And as our understanding increases we internalize both knowledge and feeling in balance. We apply our knowledge, not merely recite it.
Yes, that demands an openness to new avenues of perception. Are you tired of pushing on a door designed to be opened by pulling? Perhaps it's time to change perception.
As a final note I did find a passing comment in this text to be off the mark. In commenting on the immediate efficacy of the psychedelic potion versus "spending a lifetime in a Buddhist monastery waiting for enlightenment" the author seriously mischaracterized the monastic experience, basically as a wasted life when quickee drugs would have done it. I do not subscribe to the use of drugs, though I grudgingly understand them when needed as a "kick in the ass" for the less thoughtful. A realization of one's self, in its entirety and its context, deeply felt and subjectively understood, can come as easily as changing our perception from push to pull. It's our materialist enculturation which tells us we can't be there yet, which tells us to keep pushing. In the same vein, no Zen master or monastic abbot can tell us when we are enlightened. Or not.
"His return repelled by the impermeable membrane which separated him from the "real world", he drank deeply from the Pierian spring, treasured by the Muses of Macedonia." Untold stories of Tonio.
"A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again." Alexander Pope. An Essay on Criticism. 1709
All comments are welcomed and will receive a response.
These past several months have undoubtedly provided us with unusual amounts of time to ponder our existence, and the continuation thereof. Those of us not given to "binge" watching of television may have increased our reading time, walked in the neighborhood more, cleaned and repaired things around the home, learned how to assist the kids in distance learning, or spent more time meditating about life.
Included in that meditation some of us considered the possibility that Covid 19 might eventually catch us and, especially for those of us older, bring down the curtain on the final act. What has our life been about? Has it turned out as expected, or did we learn to not expect? What little mysteries did we put off until "later"?
One rather minor mystery I've actually enjoyed is one I discovered very early. Most of the childhood time I was in my family home was spent alone with a wide variety of books, paintings, and a radio I could listen to. Somewhere in that time I became aware that photographs, though somewhat interesting, were not compelling. They were static, frozen moments in time. Worse, they presented me with immutable fact, leaving me with little or no incentive to wonder. On the other hand, paintings seemed kinetic, somehow living and speaking of a past and a future and encouraging me to ponder a choice not taken. In later years I've often said, The camera captures, the brush invites. For me, the camera presents a take-it-or-leave-it fait accompli, a demonstration of mechanical technology whereas a painting invites me to imagine the mind of the artist and how the image developed there and unfolded on the canvas. Would I have seen the subject that way? How might I have done it differently?
The radio programs of the 1940's to mid 1950's did the same. They compelled me visualize the characters, the settings, and the broad scope of the timeless context. Even after a tour through the New York studios, watching a man "clopping hooves" onto a specially made pan to produce the sounds of The Lone Ranger's horse I was afterwards still convinced I was hearing Silver thundering after the bad guy. I had not been locked out of the borderlands of imagination.
Yes, radio. A device largely forgotten except by those who now listen to almost entirely Right Wing "talk shows". But unlike the hate filled fantasies spun out by the talk shows of today there were engaging programs such as Fibber McGee and Mollie; The Shadow; Sgt. Preston of the Yukon; Amos and Andy; and many others. Some readers may recoil at my mention of Amos and Andy, thinking it impolitic to reference White men mimicking Black men for popular entertainment. I did not see it as prejudiced, and I knew prejudice from the daily taunts of WOP, DAGO and MAFIOSO shouted at me by "American" kids. Their claims of being half this and half that led me to think of them as mongrels, but I did not voice that as it would stoop to their level. But then, turn off the lights, tune the radio to The Shadow and slip across the border as Lamont Cranston stalks the evildoers through darkened streets. Sail the high seas with Horatio Hornblower as enemy ships close around you. Marvel as Tarzan communicates effortlessly with fellow citizens of the jungle. Return to Fibber McGee's cluttered but comfortable home as he struggles to outsmart Mollie.
And then television came along. As if movies – "moving pictures" – were not enough, they sought out delinquent theater goers in their homes. And brought us characters who obviously were not from the borderlands. That's not the Lone Ranger. And "Tarzan" holding in his gut? Anyone who has ever opened a book or listened to a radio series, venturing deeply across the border knows that casting calls almost always miss the mark. Moving pictures, at 32 frames per second (film speed), to fool the mind into thinking it is seeing motion when it is simply seeing a blur of static, take-it-or-leave-it images. We are denied entry into the borderlands, the possibilities conjured in our imaginations.
But at least early television and even film studios were compelled by their primitive technologies to capture credible presentations of something passing as reality. Now we are so accustomed to "special effects" we no longer find ourselves saying, But that's impossible. We accept unreality as reality.
Through those early years there was "education", the deadening process of learning versus experiencing. Primary school, three in my case, was learning the correct answers. And learning how to escape into the borderlands without getting caught by the women in Black Robes and their ever present steel edged rulers. Prep school was better, but the men in Black Robes still managed to teach Religion classes as Match the Answer to the Question, not as experiment with a thought and explore your feeling. Static, frozen answers in time. They would still be there whether I accepted them or not. After all, they didn't belong to me.
And so, retired, sequestered and withdrawn I hear that call, "Follow your dream" and wonder. Did I follow my dream, or someone else's? What part of life was a dream and what part was just hacking through day by day? Was I even aware it was a dream, those times when I thought I knew someone and it became obvious I didn't? If we can become distracted, are we ever tracted?
At times I think our culture encourages us to leave the thinking to someone else. It encourages us to accept what we are told is the proper way to react to the "information" we are given and to reject all interest in what may be a larger and truer reality just across the border.
Some years ago, in southern California, I observed a group of people interested in psychic phenomena. During one session the moderator explained a process of handling an object and "psychically" sensing its history. She then passed around a common piece of decorative pottery you would find in many homes and asked one after another to hold it for a few minutes and tell us about it. I knew the moderator had a good knowledge of its history. But as each person took a turn, some seemingly acting very "psychic", she never betrayed any agreement or disagreement with what the person said. I felt there were several ways to assess the completed process, beginning with a rejection of the standard materialist claim that it was all nonsense. Yes, the moderator very likely did have a history of the object, but what I found more valuable than a "hit" by someone was the exercise itself, in some cases a cautious toes first stepping and in others a full blown stride over the border and into the lands beyond. I don't recall any "rights" or "wrongs" or any grades given. The object was simply put away and the next topic introduced.
I came away from that with a sense that we do not do enough of active wondering, conjuring if you like, in our lives. We live in the "Information Age" as so many empty vessels waiting to be filled, drained, and filled again until one day we crack down the center and are swept into the discard bin.
As a child I loved museums, even those exclusive art galleries where my family shopped for significant finds. Remember that saying, Cut to the chase? In fact, the chase was the term for the backplate upon which type was set (by typesetters) in preparing newspaper stories for printing. To cut to the chase meant to strip off the stories planted there in preparation for a new story.
Want to take back your life? Cut to the chase, remove the stories other people have set on your backplate and write your own. Who's to say you are wrong?
And while you're at it, spend some time in the art galleries of museums near you, and the antiquities galleries. Cross the border, at least for a little while. And drink deeply from the Pierian Spring. Remember, a little learning is a dangerous thing.
Call of the Mild
"The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs." Charles de Gaulle. Entre Nous. 1967
All comments are appreciated and will receive a response.
Those of you who read my previous post, Older Adoption, may be wondering if anything came of it. Yes. After considering a few dogs, including one from a rescue group that failed to inform me of multiple self-healed injuries to a particular dog (I found these with a cursory exam) and a history of biting, I had come close to giving up. But, members of my family kept pushing. One sent a link to a Husky rescue group about 900 miles west of here, and I decided to file an application. Having had seven Huskies and one Samoyed over the years I was hesitant to consider getting just one as they are definitely pack dogs. However, the rescue group which had her produced an in-depth and credible background discussion indicating she would do well in a one dog household. That, and her estimated age of five years, swayed me to make the trip.
Driving that far gave me plenty of time to reconsider what I was doing. Since I spend so much time alone having a living and interacting being with me would be a plus for mental health. And, since I have an array of "aftermarket parts inside", as the tee shirt my daughter gave me announces, being required to walk fair distances on a regular basis would be good for me physically. But could I provide a happy home for a remarkably sentient companion? I've never been one to simply subject a non-human animal to servitude; years ago I dedicated myself to ensuring my military dog had as happy and enriching an experience with me as possible. We worked as partners, not as master and servant. So, given the lifestyle I now have I chose to adopt a young to middle aged female, less likely to engage in the signature Husky trait: ESCAPE. Still, this would require fencing the yard, even ignoring the existing partial fencing on neighboring yards. Mine has to be Husky proof. And with a large, wooded and hilly lot a seriously competent crew would be required to install a six foot, double gated privacy wooden fence.
And, as soon as I could get her home and receive her medical records I would take her to my regular veterinarian, famously the most expensive around but worth it in my opinion. How would I register her? Of course, I considered Siberian names but those are typically difficult for many people to grasp and I dislike having to correct people multiple times. I also didn't want the Regime's Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) smashing down my door at night to arrest and deport her. Hmmm, Siberia's status with Russia might endear her to the Trump Crime Syndicate. Oh, well.
I try to stay at one or two syllable names, even though she is purebred. No "Ice Queen Mistress of the Northern Mists" for her. One of my horses was a registered Quarterhorse with a name longer than his mane. But he answered to Hank. So, paleo-linguists will appreciate that I reviewed my understanding of Norse (the root language of Swedish and Norwegian) and chose Freya. Norse: Noblewoman. Pronounced FRAYuh. I Promise not to teach her Swedish; she will learn only English. Of course, she will take time in learning a new name and no one at the rescue group seemed to know her original name, or if she even had one. She was taken by a Sheriff's Department in some arrest procedure and was bailed out by a Husky rescue group. There's no indication she's been charged with any crime.
So, especially given her circumstances, I checked her for submissive behavior, particularly toward males, and for aggressive behavior. Either could indicate a history of significant mistreatment. Her eyesight and hearing are excellent and I could find no evidence of hip dysplasia or esophageal malformation. Her teeth are excellent, suggesting a good diet history. And, she is neither paw or food aggressive. However, unlike other Huskies of mine, she growls demonstrably at some people. That's unusual for a Husky; they usually give no audible warning. One of my Huskies, a male, strolled into a new vet office for the first time and swept the room with his ice blue eyes. Several other dogs of various breeds climbed frantically onto their owners laps urinating all the way. From that day forward the vet required me to call ahead so they could set aside a private waiting room for us. Some time later that same Husky stood still at the base of a tree and charmed a squirrel right down to inches from his nose. I convinced the squirrel to seek higher safety.
I don't yet know how Freya reacts to firearms. Since almost everyone we encountered on the trip home and around the neighborhood displays the same response of wanting to come over and pet the "beautiful dog" I am cognizant of the strong traffic in dognapping. I happen to carry a licensed man-shredding handgun and hope I never have to use it on her behalf.
But, happy days and happy nights. I hope readers will consider adopting a rescue dog and providing a good home. Even without the crushing stress of living in these times, I'm sure you would find the rewards far outweigh any inconvenience. One day I'll post some pictures.
No, I'm not talking about adopting a senior citizen, or even another human of any age. In six weeks or so it will be one year since I asked our veterinarian to come to our home and perform the last procedure for my canine companion, Plato.
I was inclined to wait a few weeks and then go out to adopt another dog in need of a home. In my mind that was in no way derogatory toward Plato; it was, to me, doing what he would have wanted me to do. But domestic bliss sometimes skates on thin ice and I have waited this long, though I did attempt to examine other dogs.
But during these ten months I've had health issues which magnify the question of what would happen to a new adoption were I to become incapacitated or even expire. Of course, this was never not an issue, especially during the many years I lived as a sole human and had dogs, horses, and a cat. I traveled extensively but always had someone "live in", sometimes for weeks at a stretch. And they had complete instructions covering whom to contact and what to do should they be notified I could not return. Now that I'm as retired as one can be, given my career history, I must consider this issue from a different perspective. Do I want my canine companion to outlive me, or do I want to go through another difficult transition as I outlive them? When it comes to non-humans, I'm not the Angel of Death.
As I watch my 78th year creep toward me over the horizon, why would I adopt another dog? Physician relatives are unanimous in insisting it would be hugely beneficial. It would get me out and walking several times a day, get my mind off the looming disaster descending on our country, and provide a concrete outlet for the feelings I have toward dogs in need. All good reasons, and I'm sure someone can think of more. I have supported numerous organizations dedicated to bettering the lives of practically all life on the planet. But of the reasons I cited above I tend strongly to gravitate toward the last. I don't like the feeling that I'm using another living being as a tool. As a military dog handler decades ago I worked daily to develop a cooperative relationship with my dog, working with him, not on him. I got in trouble for it, but my methods proved correct in the end.
So, I'm actively looking for a breed I already have experience with and have learned their particular ways of communication. They do have them, you know. Medium sized dogs fit the bill. I've never really connected with little dogs, especially with their common yapping and screaming. and very large dogs could prove too difficult to handle especially if coming across another neighborhood dog.
Now comes the question of age. Another puppy is out of the picture. That old commercial, "Don't leave us with the baby!!!" comes to mind. Unfortunately, they are too needy and too destructive for me at this time in life. I do have a soft spot for "senior" dogs, as they are the least likely to be adopted out of dog pounds and even no-kill shelters. But often there is no history on those dogs, either medical, social, or destructive. So, I'm gravitating toward younger dogs in certified foster care. This usually affords a chance to see a dog in a home setting, perhaps checking for damage around the house, healing wounds or missing fingers on the foster parents, etc.. I would also have the opportunity to find out if the dog is food-aggressive, paw-aggressive (some will rip your hand off if you touch their paws) or dog-aggressive, such as in wanting to fight another dog encountered on a walk. Of course, some breeds are simply out of the running because homeowner's insurance can be lost the day the company finds out you have one. Years ago I was turned down by a company when they asked if I had a dog and I said, "Yes. A Chow". End of conversation. Dealing with a fostering rescue group can be far more expensive than a county shelter but getting these questions answered is worth it.
Until three years ago small children would not have entered into the calculus. But then nieces and nephews started getting married like they just heard about it and babies started appearing. While it's unlikely they would come all the way to Atlanta, it is likely we would have to at some point travel to their neighborhoods. I really dislike leaving my dog in a kennel, though we have relied on a pretty good one during out-of-country travels. When possible, I bring my K-9 companion with me. Hotels and motels along the way are getting more dog friendly. So, the issue of a toddler pulling a tail must be kept in mind.
And speaking of pulling a tail, there's the issue of allergens and grooming. I've had Siberian Huskies and was often told by vets they are "hypo-allergenic". True, but they can shed whole blankets. Fortunately, I have a large enclosed deck which allows me to groom to my heart's content. I used to feel slightly guilty about the large tufts of fur drifting through the neighborhood until I found out that several species of birds like to grab it for nest material. Now I just keep quiet if I see a jogger with strange tufts stuck to his or her running suit. The birds will follow them home.
Well, here we are. I hope you've had some interesting thoughts while getting this far. When I can figure out how to enclose a picture in this blog you will be among the first to pass judgment on my selection. But please have patience. When I interview a dog I go first to the spirit, not just the nose. If the spirit does not agree we part ways then and there.
All comments are welcome and will receive a response.
Over the past twenty years and more the United States has seen increasing evidence of White Power militancy and hoarding of weapons in preparation for some expected internecine conflict. But for most Americans almost all of the evidence has been viewed at a distance, presented in short news stories and the very occasional in depth coverage of such incidents as Ruby Ridge and Waco. The massive death toll at the bombing of the Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City was glossed over as the work of a couple of deranged individuals. And, particularly after the September 11, 2001 airline hijacking incident the public mind increasingly linked the concept terrorism with foreign Muslim. Meanwhile the White self-styled "militias" increasingly gained the status of heroes and patriots, a bit zealous perhaps but basically good guys.
During several of those early years I worked in a federal counter-terrorism program. But, unlike my superiors, my attention was centered on domestic evidence, threat levels, funding sources, and the ultimate question – Cui bono, usually rendered as "Who benefits?" Yet, my findings and concerns were ignored; the emphasis was instead on shoveling massive amounts of tax payer funds to States and Territories to militarize their police forces in anticipation of a foreign invasion of evildoer saboteurs and wild eyed suicidal terrorists. I eventually chose retirement and more involvement in college teaching.
It is interesting that as I write this the public is being informed of top level Department of Homeland Security attempts to suppress information and findings on the dangers and activities of domestic, predominantly White Nationalist Right Wing groups. More damning is the evidence that Left Wing groups are instead being falsely demonized. But again, these are news reports, seen by many people, internalized by some, ignored by others, and forgotten when prime time viewing airs the current episode of some meat market reality show, or some "crime" show in which the crime will be resolved in an hour.
However, just as I finished the paragraph above I got a notification that the FBI is issuing very serious warnings about the potential for armed violence at polling stations and State buildings on Election Day. The warnings cite high risk from armed Trump supporters trying to coerce voters and erupting in violence should it appear Trump is losing. But again, even with broad coverage on mainstream news, how many people bother with such news anymore?
Apparently, people are forming their opinions from some information sources. Just today it was disclosed that Trump wanted to fire a top level Dept. of Homeland Security official because the official stated for the media that Russia, not China or Iran, is the primary influencer in Trump's favor. Oh, well, dictatorships control the news. That's what they do. Maybe we should just get over it.
A couple of days ago I took a car trip. But before doing so I got the emissions check I need for a new license tag. As I flipped open my billfold to select a highly protected credit card the cashier at the auto inspection place, who looked like he just got out of prison, saw my Concealed Carry License. He said, "Joe Biden will take that away from you." Not wanting a confrontation, I simply said, "I don't think so." He then launched into an NRA inspired soliloquy on how "They" would have to come and take his guns off his dead body. Since he had my address, a couple of miles from the shop, I passed on telling him to be careful what he wished for.
We then set off on a trip into the north Georgia "mountains", not too far from home and just on the border with North Carolina. We selected old State roads over the newer Interstates, giving us a horrendously twisting, climbing passage on very narrow two lane roads but an up close view of "Deliverance" country. Yes, that movie was filmed in the area we were driving. I knew a couple of retired "Feds" who built houses in these woods and who told me, "Don't piss off the locals".
With 50 yards or less of forward visibility through the tree lined curves I watched the local mountain boys hurtle their huge and questionably maintained pickup trucks up and down the twisting road like Olympic bobsledders, wondering when our mirrors would clip. Watching those trucks I noticed most of them were festooned with Trump stickers, gun manufacturer logos, and rude messages. I don't recall seeing Confederate flags.
Each time the road opened a bit we saw houses, some fairly nice and some not so. And, everywhere there was room we saw yard signs for Trump, messages from God, and American flags. At one intersection we saw our first local campaign sign: the candidate's name over a very large picture of an AR-15. We got the message.
Finally we arrived at the town we wanted and found the apple orchard store we had come looking for. Everyone, including us, wore masks. Must all have been tourists. We spent over an hour getting bags of apples and various other items before loading up and searching for a place for a late lunch. We finally found one. Afterwards, while walking to the car a young couple was walking toward us, she was White and he was Black. He had his head down and looked rather apprehensive. But as he glanced up I nodded, looked him in the eye and said, "How are you doing?" He had a typical startle reaction but smiled and said, "Fine, thank you." I guess he was expecting something else. In fact, judging by what I had seen in the area I felt that around this region the initials BLM mean Bureau of Land Management.
As we drove off we had to negotiate another few miles of twisting, blind two lane road to get to a major highway back to Atlanta. Coming up on a stop sign we saw a very large billboard advertising an independent pharmacy. The name and logo of the pharmacy were clearly presented over a line of large script which said: Drugs, Guns, Ammunition, Tags. All your shopping needs.
Great! We could load up on opioids, take our pick of guns and load them, and maybe get a tag or two for any "big game" we shot. Couldn't ask for more. We wanted to photograph the sign, but several factors prevented that: A blind curve behind us meant some mountain boy in a pick-up truck would likely slam into us; there was no place to pull off the road without clearing some trees or driving into a ravine; the license tag on my vehicle is marked with an identifier for an affluent county bordering Atlanta; and, I didn't feel like engaging in a shoot-out after such a nice lunch. But I do sincerely regret not being able to post the picture, which is still clear in my mind.
So what do we make of all this? Is this just an aberration, a sojourn into The Twilight Zone? Or is this Americana? I've lived in or traveled 49 of the 50 U.S. States, North Dakota being the only exception. While working in counter-terrorism I was in frequent contact with State counterparts throughout the U.S.. In several cases I was told that, no matter the attack or disaster, State personnel and vehicles would NOT be sent to certain areas, specifically large compounds of heavily armed self-styled militias and "religious" anti-government groups. "I'm not sending my people out there to get shot to pieces!" I completely agreed.
I've been "out of the business" (directly) for a while. But at my last check there were 750 such groups known to still be up and functioning, distributed throughout the entire United States. No State is without at least a few. But it's important to realize and remember that these are the identifiable groups; they do not include the supporters and the sympathizers. Remember the Olympic bomber, Eric Robert Rudolph? He was a federal fugitive for five years. The public has been told he survived those years by camping in the woods, eating acorns and salamanders, and pilfering dumpsters. Having the training and experience that I do I would consider that possible. But that same training and experience make it very highly unlikely he survived those five years with no human contact. I have never accepted that. Any Agency profiler would tell you his motivations for his actions were fundamentally based in his need for human contact and recognition. Someone supported him, if by no other means than by providing appropriate clothing for the harsh winter seasons in the forest.
In the history of the Great Experiment in Democracy in this country there has always been the assumption that those who supported the losing side in an election would accept the results and try harder the next time. Frankly, I don't see that happening this time. Some are saying that if Trump wins this could very well be the last free election this country sees. That may be an overstatement, but such an outcome would clearly usher in a dictatorship which, though emboldened to become more visible, has likely learned from others to veil itself in patriotism and religion.
I certainly do agree that this is the most important election of my lifetime. And so I ask again, please vote.
"The differences between the conservative and the radical seem to spring mainly from their attitude toward the future. Fear of the future causes us to lean against and cling to the present, while faith in the future renders us receptive to change." Eric Hoffer. The True Believer.
Readers throughout the world will agree that all advanced nations have some fundamental document, usually referred to as a Constitution, which enshrines their core values. And, most if not all have mechanisms for formally altering that document should the need arise. But therein lies the rub.
Through most of my life I've heard the American political divide stated as Conservative versus Liberal. In the 1960's, we endlessly heard the term Radical. In recent years we are increasingly hearing the term Progressive. I have never identified as a member, official or merely sympathizer, of any such group. But the question remains: Who's who?
Until John Kennedy came along my family was knee-jerk Republican, which meant Conservative. Unsatisfied with labels I looked into the values and feelings of that group. And I found what I felt were deep and irreconcilable contradictions. For starters, it seemed the conservatives were dedicated to conserving the values enshrined in the American Constitution without consideration of the accelerating pace of change in every aspect of our lives. Yes, there is a long train of Amendments, but they were grudgingly won in protracted court battles often long after the original petitioners are dead.
But then, as I was growing up in the extremely repressive 1950's under a "conservative" administration, I noticed that, while "Freedom" was the mantra, there were book and film bannings in several cities and public libraries, words that could not be said and scenes that could not be shown on television, "Public Service" films on television which relegated women to a status about equal to a household appliance and children to indentured servants. "Under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance, which was to be recited with vigor at the start of each school day, whether you believed in a god or not and whether, as I had, you took that oath at your Naturalization Hearing thinking it was a solemn and once in a lifetime oath. (I tried explaining to a teacher that when I took that oath I did not know it had to be renewed every day. Oh, that went well.) In short, the core value of "Liberty for all" was directly contradicted by everyday life.
These contradictions were far more apparent when we looked at the rules and regulations aimed at personal life, such things as sodomy laws, cohabitation laws, abortion laws, etc., versus corporate life and making a profit. Corporations of every type fought hard against every attempt to promote and develop consumer safety, such as in vehicle design; consumer health, such as clean air and clean water regulations; food safety, and the list goes on. In every case the conservative mantra was Deregulate, just as it is today in the conservative camp. Buyer Beware applies today almost as much as ever.
It's strange that for the last few years conservatives have been praising the "good old days" of the 1950's when, in the 1950's, people of the same political and social orientation were praising the "good old days" of a mythical frontier past. Nothing like a good old Tom Mix "western" movie, or a Hopalong Cassidy cowboy series on a Saturday morning. Shoot the bad guys, save the helpless damsel, ride off into the sunset. All without indoor plumbing. The "good old days" meme is less common today, but the drive to squelch advancements in science on every front – except where there is profit to be made, is alive and well.
I didn't hear the term Liberal much in the 1950's. I did hear "egghead", "pointy headed professors" and other pejoratives aimed at anyone who dared to publicly think aloud. They were the "ivory tower" types, probably lurking on elite college campuses and plotting to subvert our virginal youth with their talk of the United Nations and other "world government" cabals. But if there could be anything which drew me to listen and learn, it was people who dared to think aloud.
Now, I should not give the impression I agreed with everything proposed by the Liberal voices. I thought some of it was naive, and even a few steps from self destructive. For example, I watched the rise of communes, and their all but certain demise as they gallantly refused order in favor of "doing your own thing". But those fledgling efforts were fringe groups, lacking the DNA to grow and replicate. However, what the larger society missed was the principle underlying these efforts: the realization that "It Takes a Village……" and that village is global. When people crow that the United States is the most powerful nation on Earth they must equally realize that powerful nations render effects far beyond their borders. And those effects have consequences. No nation stands for long atop the mound if their actions, or inactions, erode and weaken the very mound upon which they stand. And being the world's number one exporter of arms, the number one exploiter of all non-renewable resources, and the sole deserter from international accords while it pursues its "Do your own thing" mentality in profit making is simply a version of an imploding commune writ large.
Admittedly, the shift from the largely mythical history of the United States toward being a responsible member of the world community will not happen quickly. But then, quick solutions have themselves become the expectations of too many Americans. In saying the liberal position favors forward thinking while the conservative position favors (often false) memory I am reminded of how I explain the bedrock of science. Science does not advance only by re-inventorying what we've known; it advances by asking what do we not know. This brings us up to date with the Progressive movement we are now hearing more of. The title itself should clarify the operant ethic: Progress, but carefully defined and carefully developed.
I remember an ad from the 1950's, "Progress is Our Most Important Product." And I remember thinking at the time, But what if what we have works? Progress for the sake of progress leads to abuses, such as charging more for a product simply because it has been redesigned with no clear benefit from doing so. Our politics are a product of our society and while we must be adaptive to new realities we must be equally careful to reject change for the sake of change. This has never been more obvious than in the 2016 Presidential election.
And so, when considering the buffet of political groups on offer, what happens when the diner finds nothing on the table fully appealing? Does she go away hungry, choosing not to vote? Or is she drawn to that sideboard in the corner, the one with the narrow selection called Third Party, or Independent, or Green Party, or whatever is fashionable these days?
Frankly, when I hear of people casting their votes for outliers I think of someone who is asserting a personal position at the cost of a national vote. In other words, throwing away a vote just to feel better. Yes, making a statement is important. But only if someone is listening. Votes cast on the fringe deplete those which could have been cast for a viable candidate, and sometimes contribute to a "spoiler" effect. Votes cast for a statement of principle may be personally satisfying, but masturbation never gave birth to anything.
Democracy has its flaws but totalitarian Fascism is unimaginably worse. In the 2020 election cycle the choice has never been clearer. A common saying in the voting season is, "Hold your nose and make your choice". Of course, the message is that rarely, if ever, does a candidate or party completely satisfy a thinking voter; there will be areas of disagreement. But the election of 2016 undeniably demonstrated that the United States is running low on thinking voters, or those who can and do think are simply walking away.
Even if you are not eligible to vote, please think, and think aloud. And if you are eligible to vote, please do so in a thoughtful way.


Ana Arce, the first Filipina to be awarded the Nippon-Gallaudet World Deaf Leadership Scholarship, is seen in this file photo.
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has signed a law declaring Filipino sign language as the national sign language of the Filipino deaf and the official sign language of government.
Duterte signed into law Republic Act No. 11106, or the Filipino Sign Language Act, last Oct. 30.
The enactment of the law was in compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The convention aims to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities.
Under the law, Filipino sign language will be recognized, promoted and supported as the medium of official communication in all transactions involving the deaf and as the language of instruction of dead communication.
The Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and other agencies involved in the eduation of the deaf were tasked to work together on the use of Filipino sign language as medium of instruction.
The language will also be taught as a separate subject in the curriculum for deaf learners. The Professional Regulation Commission and teacher education programs are directed to use alternative assessment procedures that would consider the conditions and abilities of deaf teachers.
All national and local government agencies and centers providing education to deaf students are expected to train and to evaluate their teachers.
The University of the Philippines, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF), and experts in collaaboration with CHED, DepEd and the Early Childhood Care and Development Council shall develop guidelines for the development of training materials in the education of the deaf. KWF was directed to establish a national system of standards, accreditation and procedures for Filipino sign language interpreting.
Filipino sign language shall also be the official language of legal interpreting for the deaf in all public hearings, proceedings and transactions of the courts, quasi-judicial agencies and other tribunals. The law requires courts to ensure the availability of a qualified sign language interpreter in all proceedings involving the deaf.
All government offices are tasked to take reasonable measures to encourage the use of Filipino sign language among its deaf and hearing employees.
The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board shall require Filipino sign language interpreter insets in news and public affairs programs within one year from the effective date of the law.
An interagency council composed of representatives from the KWF, Commission on Human Rights, Council for the Welfare of Children, Philippine Commission on Women, and Filipino sign language institutions will be formed to monitor the implementation of the law.


text:
Can I Survive a Shark Attack by Gouging Out Its Eyes?
And what big jaws you have! Behold the gaping mouth of the great white shark. See more shark pictures.
Caroline Warren/Getty Images
Ah, the beach -- sandy refuge where people lounge, wearing little more covering than cocktail napkins. We flock to these warm havens to soak in the sun, read trashy novels and eat piles of cheese curls and chocolate chip cookies without a care in the world. That is, until we step into the water.
If there's one major party pooper on beaches around the world, it's the shark. Once we step off of dry land, we must keep a watchful eye out for nipping crabs, stinging jellyfish and of course the telltale fins protruding from the water's surface. Almost everyone has at least a mild case of selacophobia, or an abnormal fear of sharks. Fretting over the possibility of that silent approach and swift attack is probably one of the greatest downers from our fun in the sun.
Shark attacks happen in the waters off every continent, except Antarctica, with the U.S. topping the list. Nevertheless, the odds of being a shark attack victim are incredibly slim, but it happens. Every year, the International Shark Attack File compiles the reported human-shark incidents around the globe. In 2019, it recorded 64 unprovoked attacks, 41 provoked attacks and 12 boat attacks; five of those attacks were fatal [source: International Shark Attack File].
Let's say you're one of the select few that a shark spots in the water and decides to sample. Do people have any hope against the highest link in the aquatic food chain? In a majority of cases, that answer is yes.
Most shark attack victims will survive the encounter [source: Parker]. Reasons could be because a shark approached and decided not to pursue, it took a bite and left, or the person was able to physically fend it off.
In the event you come to blows with a shark, where should you hit or kick it? And are there other things you should do before giving a shark a knuckle sandwich? Find out on the next page.
Poking Sharks' Eyes and Noses
Here's lookin' at you, kid.
Jeff Rotman/Getty Images
So the question remains, when a shark attacks, do you fight back? Generally, you want to escape quickly and quietly before a shark makes contact. If you can't swim to safety, and the shark bites, it's time for the gloves to come off. When possible, hit it with something other than your hands or feet (like a fishing pole or a stick) because you risk losing a limb. Showing aggression like this will help you escape because a shark will often not want to pursue prey if it must spend a ton of energy wrestling it [source: National Geographic Survivor].
Many shark attack resources recommend going for the eyes and the gills because these are the most sensitive parts of a shark's body. By striking the eyes, you aren't trying to blind it but rather stun the shark into swimming away.
But in the heat of the moment, unless you're directly facing an eyeball, it may be too difficult to focus and strike at such a specific target. Also, maneuvering around a shark's mouth to get to the eyes could get your hand bitten off. Your position in the water also determines how successfully you can strike. If you're swimming on top of the water and a shark comes at you from below, gouging out the eye will prove challenging.
Instead, shark expert George Burgess of the International Shark Attack File advises walloping a shark's nose for the same effect [source: USA Today]. Shark studies have even found that touching a shark's snout can cause it to halt mid-motion and not attack. The reason could be the tiny electrical receptors called ampullae of Lorenzini that speckle the area around sharks' noses and mouths. The pores are filled with electrically conductive jelly that catches any changes in the electrical currents around the fish. Hitting sharks' faces may disrupt that unique sense, resulting in an unpleasant sensation.
Once you fend off the shark, remember that particularly aggressive ones will return for a second round. For that reason, after you free yourself from a shark's grip, try to swim away quickly without a lot of splashing -- splashing will continue to attract the bully.
Above all, try to stay calm. Though hand-to-fin combat with a shark probably sounds like a nightmare, the odds are on your side. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 90 percent of shark attack victims swim away with minor injuries [source: NOAA].
For more information about sharks and ocean safety, visit the links that follow.
Related HowStuffWorks Articles
Top 10 Shark Attack Stories
Five Most Dangerous Sharks
What do most sharks eat?
How do sharks see, smell and hear?
Why do people collect shark teeth?
More Great Links
International Shark Attack File
Discovery Channel's Shark Week
Florida Museum of Natural History -- Ichthyology Department
Allen, Thomas B. "Shark Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance." Globe Pequot. 2001. (June 5, 2008)http://books.google.com/books?id=O8qJf3QnEZ4C
Burgess, George H. "How, When, Where Sharks Attack." Florida Museum of Natural History Ichthyology Department. (June 5, 2008)http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/attacks/howwhen.htm
Dingerkus, Guido. "The Shark Watchers' Guide." Wanderer Books. 1985.
Discovery Channel. "Sea Survival -- Sharks." (June 5, 2008)http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/survival/guide/environment/sea/sea_07.html
Lineaweaver, Thomas H. "The Natural History of Sharks." Nick Lyons Books/Schocken Books. 1970.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Shark Attack News Conference." Transcript. May 21, 2002. (June 5, 2008)http://www.connectlive.com/events/seagrant/transcript.html
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Shark Species." (June 5, 2008)http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sharks/FSCommonencounter.htm
USA Today. "Travel: Shark expert George Burgess." May 20, 2003. (June 5, 2008)http://cgi1.usatoday.com/mchat/20030520003/tscript.htm

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


For all tennis lovers who live in Lviv, our center is well known. But nowadays our courts are supplemented with fine infrastructure (changing rooms, showers and a bar). In general the "Eurosport" has seven earth courts, three of which are indoor courts. They provide training all the year round. They give the possibility to hold and take national and international competitions on the basis of the tennis club.
There are also children's divisions in the Club. There is a possibility of individual workshops and training for both children and adults.


Applications for 2013 Simon Youth Foundation Community Scholarships are being accepted until Friday, January 11.
Follow the instructions included in the application packet for submitting your documents to the scholarships program's independent administrator.
Visit mall management M-F from 8:30am-5:00pm to pick up your application or download it online.
Students from any school or district in communities that are home to a Simon ® property are eligible to apply for a Simon Youth Foundation Community Scholarship. Applications can be obtained at the Guest Services desk inside each Simon mall or outlet center.
You can search for a Simon property in your community at the Simon website.
Only the first 3,000 applications will be processed so hurry, and good luck!


New York — Sprint announced today that 21 channels of Sirius music and related programming will be available to Sprint mobile phone customers.
Sprint will offer a new "Sirius Music" service on its multimedia handsets under the Music & Radio category.
Sirius Music includes pop, hip hop/R&B, rock, country, jazz, blues, Broadway, electronic and dance, as well as "hits" from the various decades from the '60s to the present.
Separately, Sirius said BMW North America of Woodcliff Lake, N.J., extended its agreement to offer Sirius service exclusively through August 2008. All BMW models are covered by the agreement.
Factory-installed Sirius satellite radios will continue to be available on the BMW 3-series sedan and sports wagon, and the BMW 5, 6 and 7 series, with a one-year bundled subscription included in the price of the vehicle.
Other BMW models, including X3, X5, Z4, M3, 3-series coupe and 3-series convertible, will continue to have Sirius available as a dealer-installed accessory. MINI will also continue to offer Sirius as a dealer-installed accessory, Sirius said.


text:
Last governor's race of 2019 tops Louisiana ballot Saturday
Melinda Deslatte, The Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) " Louisiana voters will settle the nation's last 2019 gubernatorial contest Saturday, deciding whether to give the Deep South's only Democratic governor a second term or replace him with a Republican businessman favored by President Donald Trump.
Democratic incumbent John Bel Edwards faces a strong challenge from Republican businessman Eddie Rispone, who is hoping Trump's coattails help him secure a victory in the crimson state where the president remains popular.
Also on the ballot is a rematch for Louisiana secretary of state, plus 29 legislative races that will determine if Republicans gain a House supermajority and the competition to fill a vacant state Supreme Court seat.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.
GOVERNOR'S RACE
Edwards fell short of winning in the primary against five opponents, forcing him into a runoff against Rispone, who bested the other major Republican in the field after spending millions of his own money on the race.
The Democratic incumbent needs cross-party support to win reelection, with national Republican leaders working to prove Edwards' 2015 win was a lucky break against a flawed GOP candidate with a prostitution scandal.
Edwards has tried to focus on state-specific issues. He's running on the stabilization of state finances during his term, the first statewide teacher pay raise in a decade and the government-financed health insurance given to 460,000 people in his Medicaid expansion program.
Rispone said Edwards chased businesses and people away from Louisiana with the tax hikes he and the GOP-led Legislature used to balance the budget.
A longtime Republican political donor making his first bid for public office, Rispone described himself as a 'conservative outsider' and businessman in the mold of Trump. He sought to nationalize the race, linking Edwards to national Democratic Party leaders who are unpopular in Louisiana and offering few specifics about his state policy platforms.
Louisiana's other statewide runoff competition is for its chief elections official, the secretary of state.
Republican incumbent Kyle Ardoin is vying to hang onto the job against Democratic challenger Gwen Collins-Greenup in a rematch of the special election Ardoin won last year.
Ardoin was a top deputy to former Secretary of State Tom Schedler, a Republican who resigned last year amid sexual harassment allegations. Ardoin took over the position, then won the election to serve the final year of Schedler's term.
Collins-Greenup has worked in notary and real estate businesses and is a former city court administrator and clerk of court employee. She's considered a long-shot for victory since she's done little fundraising.
STATE LEGISLATIVE SEATS
Twenty-four state House seats and five Senate seats remain to be filled. The outcome of the House competitions will resolve whether Republicans reach the veto-proof, two-thirds supermajority for the new term starting in January that the GOP has already won in the Senate.
Sixteen of the House competitions are between candidates of the same party. Of the remaining eight seats, Republicans are competing in seven " and need to win each one to reach the 70-member supermajority out of 105 seats.
All but one of the five Senate races on the runoff ballot are between members of the same party.
Securing two-thirds of the members of the House and Senate means if the GOP votes as a bloc, its members could override a gubernatorial veto and could make some budget and tax decisions without Democratic support.
LOUISIANA SUPREME COURT
New Orleans-area voters will choose a new Louisiana Supreme Court justice to fill a seat left vacant when former Justice Greg Guidry was confirmed to a lifetime federal judgeship.
The runoff is between Will Crain, a state appeals court judge from Madisonville, and Hans Liljeberg, a state appeals court judge from Metairie. Both men are Republicans.
Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte


Pixelogic, the global provider of localization and distribution services, has opened its advanced and uniquely innovative post production content review and audio mixing theaters within its facility in Burbank, CA. The new theaters extend the company's end-to-end services to include theatrical screening of digital cinema packages as well as feature and episodic audio mixing in support of its foreign language dubbing business. This significant investment will benefit the company's customer base of content holders including the major studios, broadcasters and digital retailers.
RED DIGITAL CINEMA® introduced today the new GEMINI™ 5K S35 sensor for its RED EPIC-W® camera. The GEMINI 5K S35 sensor leverages dual sensitivity modes to provide greater flexibility for a variety of shooting environments. Whether creators choose to shoot in standard mode for well-lit conditions or low light mode for darker environments, the RED EPIC-W with GEMINI 5K S35 sensor delivers incredible dynamic range and produces cinematic quality images.
RED Digital Cinema® is showcasing its latest sensor technology, MONSTRO 8K VV, on Stand 426 at the BSC Expo, running Feb. 2-3 at the Battersea Evolution. MONSTRO is an evolutionary step in large-format sensor technology with improvements in image quality including dynamic range and shadow detail. The new cinematic, full-frame WEAPON® camera with the MONSTRO™ 8K VV sensor that launched in October 2017 is now available for purchase.
Sony Digital Cinema 4K and Hawk-Eye Innovations today announce the first full proof of concept of Hawk-Eyes globally-renowned technology outside the world of sports broadcasting.
Sony Professional Solutions Europe (PSE) confirms the appointment of Damien Weissenburger to spearhead the companys expanding Theatre Solutions business that serves cinema chains and independent screen owners.
RED Digital Cinema will bring its latest DSMC2 cameras to The Media Production Show, which takes place 13th and 14th June at the Olympia London (West Hall). Attendees will see demonstrations of the RED EPIC-W¢ and WEAPON® 8K S35 with HELIUM¢ sensor in the RED VIP Experience Lounge.
Blackmagic Design would like to congratulate all the 2017 Oscar nominated films and the production professionals whose hard work and creativity helped bring them to life. Blackmagic Design is honoured that its Pocket Cinema Camera digital film camera, as well as its DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, grading and finishing solution, were used on some of this years Oscar nominated films, including Hacksaw Ridge, Arrival and Moonlight.
RED Digital Cinema will be exhibiting at the BSC Expo (booth #223) in Battersea, London, from Feburary 3-4. Those visiting REDs booth can interact with REDs DSMC2TM cameras including, RED EPIC-W TM and WEAPON® 8K S35, which feature REDs newest sensor, HELIUM¢. Additional RED cameras will be on display in the Cirrolite, Cooke Optics, Fujinon, Schneider, and Zeiss booths.


New York Knicks Fan Page Forums • View topic - Kawhi to NYC?
Jalen Rose: Here's why Kawhi wants out of San Antonio.
his medical records, but he's precisely the right type of swing to elevate the roster, makes everyone better.
Kawai uncle,his agent shot it down..
And what do we have to offer other than a pick??
cragganmor wrote: Jalen Rose: Here's why Kawhi wants out of San Antonio.